The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM) has revealed that challenges of expensive and inadequate capacity of industries operating in Rwanda have resulted in failure to increase exports as expected.
This was revealed during discussions between the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Senators, Rwanda Development Board and private sector among others, about import and export business.
In the annual budget of 2014/2015 Rwanda exports had a value of USD96.14 million while imports had value of USD481.10 million. Problems of insufficient and intermittent power supplies hit many industries and it is expensive and discourages some prospective investors.
Minister Francois Kanimba noted that most of products made in Rwanda are consumed in regional markets in Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo which, after all, have been affected by political crisis in some neighboring countries like Burundi which resulted in reduction of earnings and weakened commerce.
Rwanda’s exports to Burundi earned less than USD10 million in 2015 down from USD 25 million before the crisis.
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